A dance workshop conducted by professional dance instructors that have years of experience in the dance scene. Come join us and learn exciting new moves and dance tips to improve your swagger from these professional instructors. Yes, it is completely FREE! Come with your friends and family.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Hannah Yeoh, 32, is a first-time politician with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in Selangor state.

Before she was elected into office Ms Yeoh says she was the typical working Malaysian, disillusioned with the country's politics and griping about wages not keeping up with inflation.

A friend encouraged Ms Yeoh to stop complaining and register to vote. A few months later she was asked to run for a seat in the General Elections of 2008.

Ms Yeoh's first election turned out to be a historic one. The opposition coalition of which the DAP is a member ended up taking power in a few states and denied the governing party its two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time in nearly four decades.

Suddenly change was in the air. As an ethnic Chinese, Ms Yeoh says she wants to work against race-based politics that she says is entrenched in the national psyche.

This affects even civic basics like birth certificates, which now require the race of a child to be declared. Ms Yeoh and her husband, an ethnic Indian, are trying to challenge that by registering their newborn baby's race as Malaysian.

Their application was rejected but Ms Yeoh says she will continue to appeal.

Sime Darby presented the plan to Yeoh two weeks ago, seeking a waiver of a condition that requires it to build a flyover in its SS16 project site, and pledged to replace it with some other traffic measures.

Yeoh, in reply, asked for a copy of the proposal and promised to give her feedback in a week.

Hence, Rishyakaran (right) cried foul that OSC should not have waived the condition from Sime Darby without Yeoh’s consent.

“I hope we can withhold the decision until Yeoh studies the case,” he said.

Council president, Asmawi Kasbi, however defended the move, saying that the developer had already proved that building a flyover is technically impossible on the site.

“The flyover will cross paths with the LRT extension,” he said, adding that MPSJ will explore alternatives.

Rishyakaran then urged the council to take the issue seriously, as Ikram (Public Works Institute of Malaysia) has warned that traffic conditions in SS16 will deteriorate to F-class should there be unbridled development in the area.